Hey, Worldhoppers!
Who doesn’t love a good secret? The mysteries in our books keep us up at night and fuels the most outrageous fan theories. The clues are often in the story, and it’s up to us, the diligent reader, to find and put them together!
Or are they? Maybe it’s mostly in our head?
Today, we decided to get to the bottom of this with the author of The Continua Chronicles series, Jim Wilbourne.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Wow. I’m tempted to simply say “read and find out” before I slip on my cool guy sunglasses and stride off in slow motion.
The short answer is easy: yes.
First, there are metaphors, symbolism, and callbacks. I try not to go too crazy with this stuff, but I love when an opportunity presents itself. Some of these moments are my favorites in the story because the story wonk in me wants someone else—another story wonk—who loves these elements of literature to find them.
Then there are the secrets that most of us think of: foreshadowing and easter eggs. And really, I can’t tell you too much about many of them because I don’t want to spoil the novel if you haven’t read it or show my hand for future books.
But I can’t just leave you without anything, so I’ve picked out three secrets I think you might enjoy thinking about.
*SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE SEVENTH CADENCE*
There is another seer in the story that you may or may not have noticed yet. It’d be a spoiler for me to say much more than this, but they’re in The Seventh Cadence, and you’ve already spent time with them. Who do you think it is?
There is a trick to accessing the power of The Crown Sabre. Gabriel doesn’t yet know how to do it, but the clues are there. Will you discover the secret before Gabriel?
There is a love triangle that occurs sometime before The Seventh Cadence begins between a character you know and characters you haven’t spent time with (unless you’ve read the free story I give away at the back of the book). This one is probably the hardest to unravel, and I’d love to tell that story one day. There are hints to this love story in The Seventh Cadence though!
*END SPOILERS*
What do you think? Know the answers?
You might have to do a re-read. I bet you glossed right over it all 😏
Wow. Okay. I know the answers to some of these because… you know… I get the inside scoop. You have no idea how much I want to tell you what they are!
Except for that last one. This is the first time I’m hearing about this! I might have to do a re-read myself!
But you can’t do a re-read if you haven’t done your first! If that’s you, dive into the first book of The Continua Chronicles right now!